Zenobe begins work on 1-GW grid creating battery portfolio in Scotland

• UK-based battery storage firm Zenobe today claimed it has actually started building of a 1-GW/2-GWh portfolio of three battery projects in Scotland that will provide stability services to National Grid Electricity System Operator (NGESO) as fossil fuel power is phased out.

The projects lie at Blackhillock, Kilmarnock South and Eccles. Service the 300-MW/600-MWh Blackhillock site began this month with a 200-MW/400-MWh initial phase expected to start operations in the first half of 2024. The 300-MW/600-MWh Kilmarnock South is because of go on the internet soon afterwards and also startup of the 400-MW/800-MWh Eccles project is slated for the very first half of 2026.

The projects represent the world's first commercial contracts that utilize transmission connected batteries to provide short-circuit degree and also inertia, the company claimed.

The projects were gotten through NGESO's Stability Pathfinder Phase 2 tender, the results of which were announced in April.

"NGESO is striving to make it possible for the UK to have a carbon cost-free power network. Working with the market we have actually created contracts that increase the rapid uptake of renewable power. These contracts become part of the service that will enable NGESO to have the ability to run a zero carbon system in 2025," commented Julian Leslie, head of networks at National Grid ESO.

Zenobe claimed that the places of the projects were selected to lower curtailment of wind farms that have experienced rapid rollout in Scotland.

The GBP-750-million (USD 883m/EUR 857m) financial investment in the protfolio will certainly make Zenobe the biggest company of battery-based transmission services in Europe, according to the announcement.

The three batteries follow a 50-MW/100-MWh project at Wishaw that will certainly be the initial in Scotland to hook up directly to the transmission network in the first half of 2023. Its building and construction started earlier this year.